Western Front - 1975 November 7

              He prospects gold and greenbacks
A flushing salute
Bathrooms are usually not
too interesting, but this can't be
said of one John on campus.
To celebrate the bicenten­nial,
Chris Schramm, a Western
sophomore, and his Gamma
suitemates have let their bath­room
display their American­ism.
The "Hancock John" is
their tribute to our nation's
birthday.
After watching bicentennial
advertisements on TV, Don
Doust started joking around
about decorating the bathroom
in red, white and blue. Don and
Gary Arnts each hung a large
flag on the walls.
The idea caught on, and the
eight suitemates put together
their "masterpiece."
The wall behind the John is
covered with pictures of our
respected heroes — Kennedy,
Ford and Nixon(?) to name a
few. Possible additions to the
"Hancock John" are toilet
paper that looks like dollar bills
and red stars painted on the
toilet.
Chris Schramm added
there's "nothing cynical" about
their project. "It was just
something to do."
by LOUIE PHILLIPS
George Massie seems to know a lot about
getting gold from creeks and green from wallets.
Massie, 36, held the crowd of over 100
spellbound with his rapid, Southern-accent
delivery. Even someone with a phonographic
memory would be hard-pressed to record the
spiel.
The crowd came to Kovac's Restaurant in the
Bellingham Mall Tuesday evening to get tips on
prospecting. What they got was a heavy dose of
patriotism, capitalism, mom and apple pie.
Massie started explaining gold panning by
describing himself as a "dumb ol' country boy."
(He later admitted to this reporter that he had a
degree in electrical engineering from UCLA).
"You take the pan and fill it with material,"
Massie said. "Submerge it in quiet water. Take
two hands and slurry it around."
Then toss out the larger rocks and begin
circular movement, panning down to about two
teaspoons of black sand, he said.
"Normally where you find gold, you'll find black
sand," Massie said. "But you don't always find
gold where you find black sand."
Then came the pitch. For $10 the members of
the audience were invited to fight "the bureau­cracy"
by joining the two-year-old Gold Prospec­tor's
Association of America of Eugene, Ore.
"Let's bring some sanity back to the environ­mentalists,"
Massie said. "I think the politicians
are put upon by the pressure groups and that's
what we intend to be."
Association members get a subscription to
Gold Prospectors News, assorted patches,
decals and a green plastic gold pan with
"Chinese traps."
These traps are small indentations along the
side that catch heavy metal while the sand is
washed away.
"Any little flake you see is worth a dime at
today's prices," Massie said. Once a pound of
gold is collected, it can be sent to the smelter to
be refined and pressed into ounce medallions.
The smelter takes 20 per cent, Massie said, but
the gold can be sold in Las Vegas for higher than
London prices.
Massie made it sound like it was unpatriotic
not to prospect for gold. "Our currency is still
based on gold no matter what Merrill, Lynch,
Pierce or who — what's the name — says."
Standing on stage, faded-patched blue jeans
and open plaid shirt jacket with wide-lapelled
white shirt, Massie continues his non-stop
condemnation of the "IRS, DEQ, EPA" and so on.
"I'm just like Reagan and Rockefeller. I he on
my income tax. It's pretty hard to trace gold."
But he warns the audience to be sneaky about
cheating the government.
Until intermission, Massie really had not
misled the audience too much. But after the
break he started talking about chemical ways of
separating gold specks from sand.
He introduced the chemical sodium cyanide as
baking soda, and nobody questioned him. A check
with Gary Lampman of chemistry faculty reveals
the compound as "one of the materials used in
the gas chamber."
Chemistry students are required to be "very
cautious" when using the chemical, Lampman
said.
Massie ends the evening by filling out a $100
check to Kovac's for the two-and-a-half hour
rent of the room.
m ^ Wweesstteerrnn . Front FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7,1975 VOL. 68 NO. 12
PSC questionnaire: missing some points
by KEITH OLSON
Tensions among Western's faculty over loom­ing
reductions in force have heightened with the
first wave of questionnaires to program heads
from the college's Program Study Committee
(PSC).
Concern has been voiced for what some faculty
members consider overly rhetorical questions
and, in some cases, questions not asked at all.
"Mr. Olscamp's recommendation was for a
non-partisan committee (to evaluate Western's
programs), but on that committee are persons
who have suggested that students not take
courses outside the main college structure, i.e.
traditional academicians who are very involved
with the credentiality of people — what degrees
they have, what have they published and what
are their bibliographies," Reginald Butler,
Ethnic Studies faculty member, said.
Some of the questions [posed to the College of
Ethnic Studies] are so rhetorical they're hardly
answerable," Butler said.
"In the past there has been a great deal of
hostility to the College of Ethnic Studies which
has worked against a relationship with the
College of Arts and Sciences. When it comes to
belt tightening, old programs have a vested
interest, but we must forget that kind of dynamic
conservativism," Butler said.
All but one member of the PSC are past or
present faculty from the College of Arts and
Sciences. One is a Fairhaven faculty member.
Jesse Hiraoka, dean of ethnic studies said,
"Some of the perceptions (in the questionnaire)
seem to be quite dated."
He commented on two questions asked by PSC:
How do you account for the large turnover in
your-minority faculty, and how do you explain
the declining enrollment in ethnic studies?
Hiraoka said there is not a large turnover of
minority faculty in ethnic studies, and enrollment
has levelled off, not continued to decline.
Figures from the Registrar indicate the number
of students joining the College of Ethnic Studies
has increased over the last three years: 76
students Fall quarter '73, 291 students Fall '74,
and 302 students Fall 75.
Both Hiraoka and Butler said enrollment as a
criteria for evaluation may be deceptive because
some programs on campus would possibly not
have as large enrollment if some of their courses
were not listed among the General College
Requirements.
Ruth Weiner, dean of Huxley College, said she
felt some questions (posed to Huxley) were
rhetorical and answerable if one read the
general college catalog. Though saying she did
not feel any of the questions were unfair, she
said she wondered how some could be applied
as bases for judgment of Huxley's programs.
Two questions she cited were: "Are there
differences of opinion on your faculty concerning
Huxley's curriculum, and are Huxley's courses
based on prerequisites in the hard sciences?
"The questions do not make it clear which
criteria are being applied by the committee,"
Weiner said.
Among the questions Weiner said she thought
were pertinent, but not asked were: What has
been your enrollment pattern? What are faculty
loads? What are your distribution problems in
regard to faculty and students? In addition, she
said she expected some questions about the
aquatic studies program.
Weiner contacted PSC chairman Ralph
Thompson in regard to those questions and was
invited to include all information-she felt to be
pertinent and possibly overlooked and send it
along with the questionnaire.
Though not all the questionnaires have been
sent out, Thompson said he already had received
other calls from program heads about PSC
questions by Tuesday.
Admitting that some of the questions posed by
the committee may have been rhetorical,
Thompson said they are all non-the-less ques­tions
in program areas about which the
committee is unclear.
"If the questions are seemingly offensive to
program heads, we regret that, but it's
understandable," he said. "Every one of them
is going to be concerned with the type of
questions asked and the way they're asked. Some
questions may seem to come out of the blue. "
"However we have examined a great many
documents on the college's programs and some
questions are for clarification to see if certain
trends have continued, or if assertions about
various programs have changed regarding their
purposes, possibilities for future development
and possible course overlaps. "
-."It is not our intent to harass any department.
We are not looking at any unit or department of
the college at the expense of another. The
questions will be different for each program,
according to the information needed," he said.
"If that information can't be obtained in
written form, we'll have to send someone
personally to that department to get the
information."
Dean of Fairhaven Joe Bettis, whose faculty
collectively reviewed Fairhaven's PSC question­naire
and endorsed all questions as fair and
relevant, said, "The committee did not share
with me what criteria nor purpose or intention of
the questions.
"I feel the PSC is perfectly aware of
differences among the colleges and departments.
I assume they know what they're looking for," he
said.
Bettis said it would be unfair to challenge their
judgement before the final recommendations are
made. "Then, not only the negative recommenda­tions
will have been backed up with facts, but
positive recommendations as well," he said.
Itiside
The death of a tavern
The Kulshan Tavern in Bellingham's
South Side has finally succumbed to
progress. Its neighbor, The Fairhaven, has
only two weeks left at its present location.
See pg. 5